To the Editor:
As a member of the Episcopal Church and administrator of Rosebud Mission, I would like to say how proud we Episcopal reservation members are of our bishop, the Rt. Rev. Craig Anderson.
I spent many years as an advocate of justice for Indian people and I know how the bishop feels. It’s difficult to stand up for justice for Indian people.
I remember protest marches my wife and I participated in during the ‘60s and ‘70s to get the federal government to right wrongs done to the Native Americans. We also had to put up with racist attitudes of a few non-Indians who don’t want to change. I was executive director of the Rapid City Indian Service Center from 1972 to 1979, and was involved in setting up the Indian/White Relations Committee in Rapid and was chairman for three years. I left that post when we moved to Rosebud in 1979.
After things began to get better for Indians, some very white people sitting on the sidelines did not experience racial discrimination because they looked and acted white. They came forward and began to admit to their Indian affiliation, and became Indian overnight. Karen Artichoker is one of them. All during the time she was in Rapid City, she was not involved in Indian issues.
Now she is making false accusations against our bishop. The church did not take over the WBCWS shelter. When Karen says we, she means only two dozen people across South Dakota.
For the past eight years, the diocese of South Dakota contributed more than $60,000 to the WBCWS. Most of that came after Anderson became bishop.
-Frank Gangone, Sr. Rosebud Episcopal Mission